UNICEF: Periodic Review of Medical Curriculum‎ Will Fight Malnutrition

In a bid to further champion the benefits of exclusive breast feeding and in fighting malnutrition in the first six months in the life of a child and its continuity to two years, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), has called for an improvement and periodic review in university curriculum.

This was stated recently in Yola, Adamawa State, by the organisation’s nutrition specialist, Ms. Phelomena Irene, during a media dialogue on child malnutrition, tagged ‘Investing in child malnutrition for the future”’ said many health and medical personnel are oblivious of the new tenets that accompanies breast feeding due to obsolete curriculum in higher institutions of learning.

Irene said with an improvement in the curriculum which is expected to fall in line with best practices and global standards, undergraduates ‎will be fully informed and equipped with knowledgeable information for mothers at the pre and post-natal stages of pregnancy.

She said with necessary and adequate stimulation of the breast, the brain will be encouraged to send signals to the breast for milk production, stating that the brain and other parts of the body work in sync to produce beneficial results for the child whose brain is still developing.

She said “It is not the fault of the care givers ‎as many of them were not trained. The world is evolving and knowledge is dynamic. Many of them don’t inform expectant mothers because they don’t know about the new tenets which have to do with stimulating the breast for milk. The system is to blame because the curricular is hardly revised and as such, they cannot give what they do not have.

“Mothers have to be trained to know at what stage to start stimulating their breast in preparation of breast feeding‎ when the baby arrives. Through stimulation, the brain is informed and it in return, informs the breast to get set for milk production. Placement of the child on the breast is also another key factor which mothers must be taught.”

It will be recalled that Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON) had also revealed that the medical curriculum of undergraduate and post graduate students will be reviewed periodically to follow modern trends in the face of present day realities.

‎This has become imperative as nutrition in pregnant women and breast feeding mothers as well as in adolescents is presently not taught at undergraduate and post graduate levels of academic pursuit.

President of SOGON, Prof Brian Adinna who disclosed this in Abuja after the society clocked 50 years, said the Medical and Dental Council of N‎igeria (MDCN) will collaborate with the National Universities Commission (NUC) in achieving the laudable feat.

He said “We live in a dynamic world and things must be done periodically. You have to change whatever programmes you have and that includes the curriculum‎ and that includes undergraduate and post graduate levels of education.

“We don’t teach our undergraduate students nutrition as it concerns a pregnant woman, a woman that is breastfeeding and also in an adolescent. This also affects several other countries. This means in the review of the curriculum, such things must be included.

“Nutrition is very fundamental. If a child is born and the child is malnourished and that child is going through child bearing stage in a malnourished state, it means such a person will give birth to a malnourished baby and the vicious cycle continues.

“We need to do the periodic revision, merge it and pass it on to the Nigerian and Medical Council of Nigeria and the NUC so that we can begin to have a robust curriculum at both graduate and undergraduate level.”